Jeremy Shortsleeve goes for a training ride along the South Burlington bikepath on Friday May 20, 2011. / EMILY McMANAMY, Free Press

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Jeremy Shortsleeve is not a runner; he's among the endurance athletes in Sunday's KeyBank Vermont City Marathon who will hand-crank their 26 miles.

This will be the 34-year-old South Burlington resident's fourth straight roll here. He won his first in 2009, set a course record last year, and has been training like crazy.

He'll be one of 19 handcyclists at this year's competition.

"If it was easy, everybody would do it," Shortsleeve said Monday.

His rig: a recumbent 30-pound handcycle that places his body almost parallel to the ground, feet-first, within inches of pavement.

It's a configuration that offers unbeatable aerodynamics. Handcyclists with more upright machines rely on shoulder and back strength, Shortsleeve's taxes his arms, pectorals and his torso.

"It's almost like doing a crunch the whole time," he said.

Unlike bicyclists, handcycle racers ride on three wheels, the foremost gets the chain and gearing cluster -- as well as steers.Passing matters

Like many marathoners (and bicycle racers), Shortsleeve totes a small computer while training and racing, one that monitors his position on a course, his speed, heart-rate and calories burned.

His average speed on a marathon course is nearly 17 mph. World-class riders, he said, nudge it closer to 20 mph.

Shortsleeve acknowledges a geek-streak, but places greater value on how it feels to push and pull hard on the hand-cranks.

Friday, he logged 18 miles. He cycled 23 miles apiece on Saturday and Sunday. His weekly regimen's bare-minimum: 100 miles.

"That translates into six or seven hours a week. I'd like to do 10," he said.

He breaks that century into hills, sprints and even some of what he calls "noodling" or "junk miles."

Shortsleeve lives on Farrell Street, an address that offers easy access to bike paths in South Burlington as well as to the waterfront path in Burlington. In what in many ways is a solitary sport, he prefers riding when other cyclists are out there, pouring it on.

"I'm very competitive," Shortsleeve said. "If someone passes me -- I don't like that. I'll work to keep pace. And that's good for me. It's good to ride with people who are faster than you are. It makes you stronger."Potato chip and weights

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Last winter, the athlete moved beyond his indoor, stationary cycle trainer to incorporate weight training and swimming into his workouts.

"I had a goal: to not necessarily get bigger, but to get stronger. It's paying off. I'm definitely faster this year than I was last year," he said.

The trade-off is a slight weight gain: he's up to 129 lbs. -- two or three pounds heavier than last year.

"But," he adds, "I've got lighter wheels."

Shortsleeve said his preoccupation with weight is in keeping with most endurance athletes, but he's curbed the impulse to track every meal's caloric content.

"I'll ballpark it, and it feels right. I know when I'm at a surplus or a deficit," he said.

He factors in a fondness for potato chips.'Not over'

In high school and college, Shortsleeve was an enthusiastic, if undisciplined, athlete. He played soccer, baseball and basketball.

A motorcycle accident in June 2005 irreversibly changed his outlook. It severed his lower lumbar, paralyzing his legs. He was hospitalized for about two months.

"It's so easy to get depressed after something like this happens -- that's normal," Shortsleeve said. "You're wondering if you're going to feel like crap for the rest of your life."

A hospital visit from Patrick Standen, a handcyclist and president of the Burlington-based Northeastern Disabled Athletic Association, turned things around.

"I didn't have any idea who he was. But the physical therapy people knew him, the rehab people knew him," Shortsleeve said.

"Patrick asked me if I wanted to take a wheelchair out on the Burlington bike path, and I went," he said. "At the time, I wasn't really sold on it."

That, too, changed. In the fall of 2007, he took up handcycling. He competed in his first race in 2008.

"After that, I was fully addicted," he said.

As he plies his exotic trike, Shortsleeve routinely gets a lot of stares.

"They'll look over and assume, 'Oh here's someone who wants to be different.' Very few people realize that people who ride these things are paralyzed," he said.

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In the wake of his newfound speed, other aspects of his life flourished. He landed a job as a programmer at General Dynamics; he found a condo with great trail access.

Shortsleeve's eyes brightened considerably more as he described his marriage to, Danielle Shortsleeve, who indulges and enables his obsessive handcycling. The two are expecting their first baby in July.

"I decided life is not over," he said.Beyond the marathon

Next month, Shortsleeve embarks for the first time into the more competitive world of the U.S. Handcycling Circuit, at the 17-mile White Mountain Cycling Classic in New Hampshire.

That race will also shorten his recovery time from the KeyBank Marathon.

"Usually I'd take three days off. This year, I might take one day -- then back in the saddle to stay sharp and fit for that race."

It's a world of road-racing, time trials and criterions -- and fiercer competition, much like the "regular" bicycling circuit.

"In a marathon, a lot of good racers would be happy to do a 'personal-best,'" he said. "In these other events, they'd be out for blood. I'd only do it if I have the full intention of winning."